Florida Sunbeam crosses the bridge that was built across the Tennessee River for the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Chickamauga Dam was built just above the railroad bridge.
Voters in Cincinnati have narrowly approved selling the city's longtime cash cow - the railroad to Chattanooga.
There were 43,173 in favor and 40,559 opposed after a hard-fought campaign by both sides.
The Cincinnati Southern Railroad will be sold to Norfolk Southern for $1.6 billion. The railroad has long been leasing the line from the city.
Cincinnati had been the only city in the country to own a railroad, and it proved a wonderful investment.
Chattanooga and its citizens had made some contributions toward constructing the line after the announcement was made that it would be the terminus of the railroad instead of Knoxville. However, it was Cincinnati that sponsored the project. It gave the most and wound up as the sole owner.
There was a vote in Chattanooga in July 1873 - in the midst of a cholera epidemic - on subscribing $10,000 to the proposed Cincinnati Southern. It passed 923 to 64.
Work was underway on the railroad, which is 336 miles long with 27 tunnels and 105 bridges, when Chattanooga was undergoing a deadly yellow fever epidemic in 1878.
It was the night of Dec. 11, 1879, when the rails from the north and the south of the Cincinnati Southern met in Robbins Tunnel in Scott County. The governor of Ohio was soon in town, having taken one of the first trips over the rails.
An excursion over the Cincinnati Southern and a grand banquet in Cincinnati were planned for the following March. A limited number of special invitations went out which entitled the bearers to a free train trip from Chattanooga to Cincinnati and admission to the banquet.
The excursion went as planned on March 17, and the banquet the following night in Music Hall attracted 2,000 people. Chattanooga Mayor H.F. Temple was one of the platform guests. It was said that "the band played Dixie, and it brought forth a sea of waving napkins. This was followed by the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner, which brought still more enthusiasm from the distinguished guests."
A month later it was Chattanooga's turn to host a Cincinnati Southern celebration. A special excursion train reached the city on April 13 to a welcome by John C. Griffiss and a reception committee. There were special excursions to Lookout Mountain and to Shellmound on the river. A banquet was held at the Stanton House.
Later in the year, Chattanooga officials took the train to Cincinnati to deliver $100,000 in bonds that had been raised in Chattanooga for the project. Both John C. Griffiss and Newell Sanders were armed for this trip and they made sure that one was awake at all times.